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<h1 id="leagueofextraordinarylearnersresources">League Of Extraordinary Learners Resources</h1>
<div class="cols" >

<p>Intellectually gifted young people are the primary active
agents in organizing and pursuing their education and all
other aspects of their growth and development. They are
less in need of a traditional top-down educational system
with &#8220;one-size-fits-all&#8221; programs and external motivation.
Things they can really use include:</p>

<ul>
<li>Educational Materials

<ul>
<li>Advanced-Beginning Text and Multimedia</li>
<li>Self-Tests</li>
<li>Syllabi which Organize Courses of Study</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Interactive Media and Hands-On Projects

<ul>
<li>Immersive Modifiable Simulations</li>
<li>Relevant and Challenging Real-World Projects</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Communication and coordination for

<ul>
<li>Partners and Study Groups</li>
<li>Challenging Group Projects</li>
<li>Immersive Collaborative Learning Environments</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Peer Facilitators and Expert Mentors

<ul>
<li>Organizing Courses of Study</li>
<li>Dealing with Challenges of

<ul>
<li>Realizing High Aspirations</li>
<li>Working with &#8220;Default&#8221; Culture</li>
</ul></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

<p>When bright young Learners are motivated they can learn a
lot faster than conventional instruction can spoon-feed
them. Our best approach for empowering Learners
is to leverage their passion for learning and their natural
orientation towards self-direction by getting them involved
in collaborative projects which give them room to learn at
their maximum rate. It is essential that the best materials
they use, especially reference materials and software, can
be adapted and improved by the Learners themselves so that
they can continue to utilize those materials as they advance
and so that the improvements in those materials are
available to the next generation of Learners. Materials
with suitable <a href="https://creativecommons.org" target="_blank">Creative
Commons</a> licenses should
be strongly preferred.</p>

<p>Our best role is in the training of peer facilitators and
expert mentors, who will increasingly consist of the
graduates of our programs. We should make maximum use of
the amazing range of existing materials which are
increasingly available through the Internet and we should
engage the Learners in projects which adapt and improve
those materials based on their experience in using them.
This strategic approach will maximize the success of
our Learners and the growth of our enterprise.</p>

<h2 id="onlineeducationalresources">Online Educational Resources</h2>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCourseWare" target="_blank">University Courses &amp; CourseWare</a>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://ocw.mit.edu" target="_blank">MIT Open CourseWare</a></li>
<li><a href="http://ocwconsortium.org" target="_blank">More from UC Berkeley, Stanford, etc.</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="https://www.coursera.org/" target="_blank">Coursera</a></li>
<li>More Presentations

<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.khanacademy.org" target="_blank">Khan Academy</a></li>
<li><a href="http://youtube.com" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks" target="_blank">TED Talks</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.thersa.org/events/rsaanimate" target="_blank">RSA Animates</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li>Freely modifiable texts

<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikiversity.org" target="_blank">Wikiversity</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.wikibooks.org" target="_blank">Wikibooks</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li>More On-Line Resources

<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.openculture.com/" target="_blank">Open Culture</a></li>
<li><a href="http://scholar.google.com" target="_blank">Google Scholar</a></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

<h2 id="softwaretoolsenvironments">Software Tools &amp; Environments</h2>

<h3 id="currentlyavailable">Currently Available</h3>

<p>There are an enormous number of useful individual software
applications designed to be used in education. There are
also some powerful software systems which create an
environment in which open-ended learning can take place.
Here are a few of the latter. LOEL Resource Map will
eventually contain an exhaustive list of both kinds of
software, properly indexed and classified.</p>

<ul>
<li>Open Software Environments for Learning

<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.drgeo.eu" target="_blank">Dr Geo</a></li>
<li><a href="http://byob.berkeley.edu" target="_blank">Scratch &#8211;&gt; Snap</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.squeakland.org" target="_blank">SqueakLand EToys</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.opencobalt.org" target="_blank">Croquet &#8211;&gt; Open Cobalt)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://code.google.com/p/openqwaq" target="_blank">OpenQwaq</a></li>
<li><a href="http://openwonderland.org" target="_blank">Open Wonderland</a></li>
<li><a href="http://squeak.org" target="_blank">Squeak</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="http://www.sagemath.org" target="_blank">SAGE</a>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://maxima.sourceforge.net" target="_blank">Maxima</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.sagemath.org/links-components.html" target="_blank">Sage Components</a></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

<p>Perhaps the most promising environments which can be used
for education is software developed originally for Computer
Games. Computer games are high-quality Simulations of
Imagined Worlds. When those worlds are created by Domain
Experts for educational purposes they can be highly
effective at supporting educational objectives with the
enthusiastic cooperation of a generation of students raised
on cognitively challenging computer games.</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_game_engines#Free_and_open_source" target="_blank">Open Source Game Engines</a></li>
</ul>

<h3 id="emergingtechnologyandlowhangingfruit">Emerging Technology and Low Hanging Fruit</h3>

<p>A number of software research and development projects for
improving effective collaboration are promising for
education. Some of these are new and some are past projects
which were never fully exploited. Developing and adapting
these systems for educational purposes can be excellent
projects for our Learners.</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immersion_%28virtual_reality%29" target="_blank">Immersive Virtual Worlds</a>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldForge" target="_blank">WorldForge</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li>Computer Enhanced Communication, Collaboration and Cognition

<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_amplification" target="_blank">Intelligence Amplification</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos" target="_blank">The Mother of All Demos</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tent_(protocol)" target="_blank">Tent Networking Protocol</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li>Especially Powerful Current Software Frameworks

<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.postgresql.org" target="_blank">PostgreSQL</a></li>
<li><a href="http://postgis.net" target="_blank">PostGIS</a></li>
<li><a href="http://clojure.org" target="_blank">Clojure</a></li>
<li><a href="http://flora.sourceforge.net" target="_blank">Flora Deductive Object-Oriented Database</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li>Powerful Emerging Software Frameworks

<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.pharo-project.org/home" target="_blank">Pharo</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.strongtalk.org" target="_blank">StrongTalk</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.projecthalo.com" target="_blank">Project Halo</a></li>
<li>Wicci System</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

<p>A great model for Learners developing Software is the
<a href="https://www.google-melange.com" target="_blank">Google Summer of Code
Program</a>. The model could
be improved by putting students in teams and using
peer facilitators with recently acquired skills as well as expert
mentors.</p>

<h2 id="futuredirections">Future Directions</h2>

<h3 id="augmentedandvirtualreality">Augmented and Virtual Reality</h3>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality" target="_blank">Augmented Reality</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_retinal_display" target="_blank">Virtual Retinal Display</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_head-mounted_display" target="_blank">Optical Head-Mounted Display</a></li>
</ul>

<h3 id="makerspacesandfabbers">Maker Spaces and Fabbers</h3>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackerspace" target="_blank">Maker Space</a></li>
<li><a href="http://fab.cba.mit.edu/about/faq" target="_blank">MIT Fab Labs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3d_printing" target="_blank">Object Printers</a></li>
</ul>

<h3 id="psipedia">PSIpedia</h3>

<ul>
<li>a wikipedia or wiccipedia</li>
<li>of Personalized System of Instruction materials</li>
<li>with Jupiter/Lambda/MOO social integration</li>
<li>FAQ &amp; chat pods on all frames</li>
<li>multiple-version testing as in the UCSD P-System classes</li>
<li>integration with SAGE, etc. for leverage &amp; visualization</li>
<li>integration with simulations</li>
<li>etc.!</li>
</ul>

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